Urban Sprawl and Haze Pollution: Based on Raster Data of Haze PM2.5 Concentrations in 283 Cities in Mainland China

Abstract

Incorporating the urban sprawl and its quadratic term into the analytical framework of the environmental Kuznets curve and considers the spatial and threshold effects of pollution, this paper used the raster data of haze PM2.5 concentrations in 283 cities in mainland China to verify the non-linear effects of urban sprawl on urban haze pollution. It finds that: the inter-city spillover effect of haze pollution is significant, and the environmental Kuznets curve holds on haze pollution; there is an inversed “U” relationship between urban population size and haze pollution; the enlarge of the urban built-up area of city would increase haze pollution significantly; the impact of urban population size on haze pollution has a threshold effect that it would decline with the urban built-up area expansion; the coordination between population urbanization and land urbanization has an notable effect on haze pollution that its incoordination in China’s urbanization has aggravated haze pollution in city and this impact would lagged 1–2 period in time.